Evening Standard's coverage of the London Bike Ride.

[glenn forger]

Here's a funny thing, check this out;

Google

bike ride london chaos.

And you get a result from The Standard, but the link's gone. The story carried contributions from Twitter including one from @nigel_simmonds who complained that cyclists don't pay road tax. Mr Simmonds also posts foul racist abuse, sexual misogyny and "jokes" about paedophiles on his Twitter feed.

Journalists relying on Twitter for outrage should really check their sources.

 

[glenn forger]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/tran...cross-thames-closed-for-15-hours-9660580.html

 

[Markymark]

Evening Standard just loves to post cycling stores for the comments. It posts both +ve and -ve just to get people reading the articles.

Here's a +ve article
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...my-weather-9659846.html?origin=internalSearch

 

[glenn forger]

This is getting more and more common:

"Outrage after yada yada, yada"

Says the headline, then you read the article and realise the outrage, and indeed the entire story, is predicated on what some stuttering galloping cocklord nobody's ever heard of has said on Twitter.

 

[Markymark]

Oh, I think there were a few numpties that were all set to be outraged or didn't bother to heed the advice given re travel that day. The warped thinking that cyclists holding them up for one Sunday is much worse than cars holding them up the other 364 days a year is pathetic, but I do believe there was outrage.

 

[glenn forger]

Can't argue with that mark, it must be awful having to plan journeys without access to newspapers, radio, the TV or Internet.

Poor lambs.

 

[Markymark]

I'm not saying they're not being idiots, I'm just saying that I think there was plenty of idiots being outraged.

 

[glenn forger]

Here he is:

https://mobile.twitter.com/nigel_simmonds

He reckons cyclists closed London yesterday, the sods. Oh, and the congestion was so annoying he suggests banning cyclists for a day.

I expect his next suggestion will be to move Christmas to June when the shops aren't so busy, the dribbling halfwit.